Habs select McCarron in first round, Rosèmere native Fucale in second

The Canadiens added size with their first-round pick at the NHL draft in New Jersey, selecting 6-foot-5, 228-pound forward Michael McCarron, who was ranked 35th by Central Scouting among North American skaters.

The Habs also nabbed top-ranked North American goalie prospect Zachary Fucale, who many expected would go in the first round. A Rosemère native who grew up a Canadiens’ fan, the 6-foot-1 Fucale backstopped the Halifax Mooseheads this season as they won the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League championship and Memorial Cup.

The Canadiens chose Fucale 36th overall. You can listen to what the 18-year-old goaltender said to reporters here.

Mooseheads’ coach Dominique Ducharme described Fucale earlier this month as a “super kid” with great ability.

“He’s another one that really enjoys being on the ice. He’s working hard. And he’s got great ability. He’s pretty good athletically, but technically also. Put all that together with a great mindset. He knows how to win a game.”

“If there’s one thing that makes him even better, it’s his hockey sense,” Ducharme said. “And sometimes we don’t talk about hockey sense for a goalie that much. But the way he reads the play, the way he sees it coming, that helps him a lot . . . to be in a good position.”

The Habs chose Michigan native McCarron, who is with the U.S. under-18 development team, 25th overall at the draft, which was held at the Prudential Center in Newark. In 59 games this season, McCarron posted 16-21-37 totals and led the U.S. development team with 182 penalty minutes.

“I never thought I was going to go this high,” McCarron told TSN. “Even today I didn’t think I was going to go this high. It’s the biggest surprise to me. I’m so excited.”

“Obviously we like the size, the grit and the character,” Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin said of McCarron on TSN. “Mike has a lot of character and the way he’s been used we know he has hockey sense and he has grit. And it’s something that we need to build moving forward with his size.”

You can hear more of what McCarron had to say to reporters here (The first question is at 14 seconds) and here.

The Canadiens used their 34th overall pick to select 6-foot-2 Swedish centreman Jacob de la Rose. European Central Scouting placed him seventh among European skaters in their final rankings. You can hear what de la Rose had to say here.

The Habs also looked to Europe with their 55th pick overall, selecting Finnish forward Artturi Lehkonen. In the scouting report on NHL.com, Goran Stubb, NHL Director of European Scouting, said of the 5-foot-9, 163-pound Lehkonen:”He has very quick feet and smooth hands, plays a solid two-way game, and uses his speed and hockey sense to his advantage. He’s full of surprises in the offensive zone, can score the big goals and accelerates quickly, especially when in possession of the puck. While he’s not very big or strong, he’s still a first-round talent.”

The Canadiens selected Connor Crisp, a 6-foot-3, 225-pound forward in the Ontario Hockey League, with their 71st overall pick. Crisp scored 22 goals and picked up 14 assists in 63 games this past season with the Erie Otters.

With their 86th overall pick, the Habs chose forward Sven Andrighetto from the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies. Andrighetto put up 98 points this season (31 goals, 67 assists) in 53 games. The team’s next pick was Martin Reway from the Gatineau Olympiques in the fourth-round (116th overall.) Both are 5-foot-9 wingers.

Jérémy Grégoire, a 6-foot, 188-pound centreman with the Baie Comeau Drakkar in the QMJHL, was the Habs’ sixth-round pick (176th overall) He was ranked 79th among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting.

The Canadiens went into the draft Sunday with nine picks, six of them in the first three rounds. The Habs traded their seventh-round pick to Florida for the Panthers’ seventh-round pick at next year’s draft.

Kristo and Thomas both seem to be small skill players.
Thomas has produced at least at the pro level – a bit like Gallagher.
It’s tough for us fans – we follow a guys progression for years and look forward to seeing him play and – poof – he’s gone.

Impeccable source! Aaron Ward is, after all, the man who told us that Iginla to Boston was a done deal a few months ago … I’m surprised he has the gall to keep on announcing rumours. No credibility anymore.

I would love it if Vincent Lecavalier signs with Les Canadiens…just to read all the angry Anglo extremest posts”just as stupid as Franco extremest!’. And with the extremest who tried to blow up the Canada Day celebrations here on Vancouver Island with 5 pressure cooker bombs FU2!

It’s possible that Kristo’s signing a coupla months ago was strictly business–i.e. MB wanting to preserve a quality asset, and Kristo wanting to eat a year off of his UFA elgibility (or something to that effect.)

That would certainly explain the rumour swirling around about Kristo making a splash on draft day…

Having Vincent Lecavalier here would be a distraction.
Everyone knows it. He surely does.
Every time the Lightning came to play, he’d have a microphone (or several) in his face. And even back in Tampa during the Christmas season travels of the Habs, he’d have to deal with a plethora of reporters from Montreal, on their turf.
One would have to believe that he’ll go where his family wants to go, where he expects to make more money, and where there’s a sane environment. And that’s not the stove burner that is the Habs world.

No question, at one time, he was among the elite of the NHL.
But I don’t think so anymore. And over paying just to have a player that may or may not bring a great deal to the table is too risky.
At least if I was a GM, that’s how I would approach it.

I think that if DD were a good 3-4 inches taller, everyone would leave him alone, or praise him for his vision.
He might have just suffered a form of sophomore jinx last year, because his line with Max and Cole was great the year before.
Let’s see how he rebounds this year, before bashing him too much.

Very mixed feelings about this one. He was badly mismanaged by the Habs but I think he is good enough to play in the NHL. Hope he gets a shot with another team but giving up on an asset like that makes me queasy.

Not sure about mismanaged, I’d lean more towards he didn’t have the right opportunity. Think of him as the reverse Torey Krug, the undersized, offensive d-man who is trying to crack the roster of a team already loaded with those guys. If we’d had nothing but Hal Gills and Josh Gorges, he would have played more.

Anyone know what happened with Jeff Shultz in Washington? He seemed pretty solid a few years ago, but fell down the depth chart last year, now he is being bought out. Could he be a fit in Montreal, or is he too slow?

I’m a newbie, but the live game blog featuring the shootout and the Budaj-wall and Gallagher’s winner as the 6th shooter had 2,560+.
A lot of those posts went like this: “Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!” so in terms of actual comprehensible thoughts that thread beats this one!

His agent probably told him, regardless who you will sign with, make sure Montreal is the runner up. That’s the smart thing to do. Then when you will give your first press conference say that this was the hardest decision of your life, and you hesitated until the last minutes, that you’re a little disappointed, but that’s the right thing to do for you, your career and your family.

Okay, let’s nip this rumour in the bud. Hal Gill didn’t say he didn’t want to play for Michel Therrien. At least, we can’t state that for certain. He’s not on the record as such.

This all started from a blurb from Dave Stubbs’ article. The quote:

“One prominent unrestricted free agent I’ve spoken with since regular-season’s end could be a nice fit in Montreal at a decent price and would fill a Habs need.

“But then I floated the name of Therrien among potential Canadiens coaches, a suggestion that drew 30 seconds of stone-cold silence. Finally:

“If that happens,” he said, “I’ve got 29 teams I can play for.”

Now, some sharp-minded HIO’istes deduced that it must have been Hal Gill who said that. That’s not a bad guess, but is just a guess nonetheless. Whoever the ‘prominent UFA’ is, we can’t say for certain.

There was a reunion of all the trucks at Lafontaine Park on the weekend.
Amazing.
The “La Queu de Cheval” truck served up quail sausage in a spicy sauce that would have cost a fortune at the restaurant, for $12.
Melt in your mouth.
Fine, they’re smaller portions, but the quality is amazing.
And as their rep was telling, it’s great advertising.

Imagine Vinny sitting inhis room..remembering the days when he was a little boy and looking with eyes wide open at that glorious “C” embalzoned on that red shirt.
That sort of emotional pull cant be checked off. I agree with UCE. Vinny’s coming HOME!

I am amazed at how this started as a minority of folks wanting Vinny (maybe) to where it is now. I may be reading the posts wrong but it does seem that HIO is full Vinny now.

To say nothing about how good the bleu-blanc-rouge #44 might look on him, and how that might speak to him, even though he had the Red Wings as his favourite team growing up. As a teen, you do things to carve out an identity, and maybe being an Yzerman fan was one for him, but the Canadiens will still have some pull on a Montréal boy.

The sentimental and almost romantic way of seeing the Habs for the players is long gone. As much as i would like to think like you nothing proves us that it is otherwise.

Seing the young Habs draftees this week end almost in tears (Fucale) cause he realized that he had been drafted by HIS team is nice to see but only caused by the fact that they are still naives.

I would really like to see Lecavalier in a Habs uniform but it will not happen. He will go where the money is that`s it , that`s all. For them hockey is a business and although they love the game ,sentiments have nothing to do with business.

The Habs are just not in a good spot to be the highest bidder this season. They are at a stage in between young players getting experience and veterans ending what can possibly be their last deal with the team . Next season would have been a totally different ball game …

I am surprised by the amount of support on HIO to sign Lecavalier. Setting aside the fact that his best days as a player, statistically speaking, are well behind him, and that even a mediocre team like Tampa Bay decided to get rid of him, how successful, really, have the Canadiens been by signing free agents? How has the organization truly benefitted from signing free agents? With the exception of Prust and perhaps Hall Gill, I do not see how free agent signings in general have made the Canadiens a better team. I for one cast my voice against signing Lecavalier.

Mind if I answer.. playing on a line with DD and Pacioretty and immediately making both more effective and productive and leaving Gallagher to be on a line with Pleks whick ugrades Pleks scoring urgency by leaps.

Better minds than mine have said that Vinny immediately becomes Mtl best forward. I agree with them.

And adding real on ice leadership and experience and maybe allowing the team to trade a Gionta or similar for D help as the season moves on.

You provided a possible role for Lecavalier. Yet I cannot be convinced relying on free agency to sustain a team is wise. Indeed, the fact the Canadiens are even considering signing Lecavalier is proof the organization is a long ways from respectability. If we look at elite teams, free agency for them is a way to fill a personnel need for an immediate purpose, e.g., to win the Cup. The Canadiens have used free agency simply to put players on the ice. In other words, the need for free agents for the Canadiens results from the organization’s lack of depth. I have no desire to see this team continue along this path. Lecavalier will assuredly not bring the Canadiens closer to elite status — indeed it is proof positive the team is in deeper trouble than we fans are aware.

Erik Cole was a great UFA signing–even better considering we were able to get rid of him before his production trailed off.

But in general I totally agree. Bergevin himself has said that the UFA market is not the way to build a winning team… but I guess that was before Montreal’s would-have-been “franchise player” of 10 years ago hit the market.

Yes, Erik Cole was a UFA, we signed him, and he gave us a fantastic year of hockey. The contract he was given was deemed perfectly reasonable by at least one other GM (since fired!), such that we were able to trade him when he started to suck. It was a good signing.

I don’t think a ‘good UFA signing’ is necessarily contingent on locking a player in long-term, and having that player deliver excellent hockey for the duration of his contract. In an ideal world, sure, but signing a UFA player to a reasonable, tradeable contract–regardless of how long they actually stay with the club–can work too.

Marc Bergevin is on the record as agreeing with you, that you build a team through the draft, not with UFA’s. The Vincent Lecavalier situation is a special instance, and we have to give it attention, do our due diligence. We shouldn’t turn our back on a potentially cost-effective Top 6 forward, a ‘gros joueur de centre’ that we always cry we need, just on a philosophical basis.

The reason we don’t like UFA’s usually is because we have to overpay. If in this case Marc Bergevin and Geoff Molson can attract him to Montréal on a reasonable contract, the objection is removed.

To say Vincent Lecavalier’s skills are diminishing is correct, factually, but overblown. He’s a very fit, dedicated player who plays hard in all three zones. He was injured last season when he took a puck to the foot, that hampered his stats, but he was clipping along at a point per game pace before that. I know, because he was on my fantasy team, for the last couple of years, and he is productive.

I see his role as playing centre between Max and David Desharnais. David would have more room to operate, and would have two shooters to feed the puck to, but wouldn’t have to take draws, Vinny would do that job. I think that would work very well.

You and twilight proposed putting Lecavalier between Pacioretty and Desharnais. That could work I conceded. But let me note I do not oppose free agency philosophically, but rather consider it through the lense of expediency. From that perspective, the greatest weakness for the Habs is their defense: losing Emelin means the team will be using more plugs until his return (and to fill in until the team’s promising group of young defencemen are ready to play in the NHL). If a goal of free agency is to make a team better, I believe the Habs should be focussing on their defense rather than forwards.

Okay, but only if we fire Michel Therrien and one of us is the coach, the other is GM, and every week we switch off. To ensure continuity we have a full briefing when we do the handover, we don’t want this to turn into a circus.

I am on the fence re: Vinnie signing with the Habs. Haven’t seen him play enough the last 3 or 4 seasons to determine how his game has declined, all I know is that his role in TB seemed to have diminished over those years. I would trust our management to put a value on what he’s worth for term or $’s.
Regarding overpayment and CAP issues, why doesn’t Molson just offer him a long term lucrative endorsement deal for the breweries?
What are the odds of the NHL considering that CAP circumvention?

You heard it ‘OUR SAVIOUR’, stay away Vinnie, you are already rich, why do you need cold winters, snow, ice, social media dissecting your every syllable, talking heads stirring up controversy, high taxes, french and english debates, political corruption, bloggers, people checking to see how much ice time you got and how much you failed this game, lies, innuendo, half truths, mafia tie in’s, no truths….for what a few more million…….listen to Price…..stay away!

I don’t know how much the concept of the “hometown discount” applies to a guy who was a Red Wings fan as a kid and hates media attention.

Granted, I would only endorse this signing if it’s affordable (ca. $3.5 million) and not too long-term. And strictly as a DD replacement. I genuinely hope MB doesn’t let the Lecavalier of 2003 cloud his vision too much…

Hey, we’re all stating opinions here, let’s have at it. My objection is the way you present your opinion as a straight fact. You make good points, they’re hard to find fault with, my reaction to them though is due to the fact that you’re claiming them as gospel, as proven, rather than your educated deductions. No harm done, it’s another fun day on HIO.

“The decision for Lecavalier begins with Montreal. He has to decide whether he wants to go home and deal with both the perks and detriments of playing in his native town. And if he goes home, it’s not going to be for the same kind of money or term other clubs would have offered. If he’s a Hab, it’s more because he really, really wants to be one. Montreal definitely has interest in signing him, but it’s going to have to be on a reasonable deal that fits within its cap and payroll structure.”

Cme on everyone. Let’s get this done. Start a drive. Send your checks to Habstrini Vinny Drive. With the $3.5 mill that MB (MB insists on a bridge contract) will ante up an what we here can come up with we could get the $5 mill level easy. Some of you like HabinBurlington and UCE are rich. And some of you like Timo and Frontenac waste your money on booze and wimmen.

To the poster that wants Mike Ribeiro instead of DD (This coming from someone that is not a DD fan)
———
From The Dallas Morning News Plano Blog

On 10/10/10 at 23:26 hours, Mike Ribeiro (Dallas Stars hockey player) and three associates were arrested at Ra Sushi Bar Restaurant (7501 Lone Star Drive).
Three of the individuals were arrested for Public Intoxication and the other individual was arrested for Public Intoxication and Assault. All 4 individuals were transported to the Plano City Jail and were bonded out at 04:44 hours…

From CBS 11 in Plano and officer Rick McDonald:

McDonald explained that Ribeiro was dining at Rasushi, located in the 7500 block of Lone Star Drive, with 39-year-old Darcy Lewis and 39-year-old Tammy Williams, who is Ribeiro’s wife.
The two women got into an altercation with other patrons at the restaurant and an off-duty officer who was working there intervened.

Ribeiro’s party, which also included 36-year-old Wane Lewis, was escorted outside. All four were taken into custody for public intoxication. Wane Lewis was also charged with assault after, police said, he lunged at an officer during the arrest.
—–
No, we should take a pass……..

I guess the only way Quebec City will get a team will be through an expansion. With the salary cap going up in the next few years, they will have to wait ten years to have a competitive team.

After all that money spent, I can see the ownership group in 10 – 15 years asking the government more money for any type of upgrades (parking, seats, corporate boxes) with the move of that team to another city if the government doesn’t comply.

How can you commit that amount of money without any guarantee that a team will come, under the pretext that without an arena a team will never come? If the Coyotes move to Phoenix it will be proof that we, the tax payers, got screwed, big times.

Given the absence of recent reported VC sightings anywhere in PQ, or travel by MB for the purpose of meeting(s), it seems improbable the #44 will be worn by a centre on the CH roster in the foreseeable future. Too bad …